Of Sea and Cloud Read Online Free PDF Page A

her anyhow.
    Well you don’t see me squealing you out.
    That’s different.
    Different because it’s you is why it’s different. And how’d Virgil know?
    How you think Virgil knew? Same way Virgil knows who’s gotta have a shit and who’s got crabs and every other goddamned thing under this fogfucked sun.
    He don’t know one thing.
    What’s that? Little Erma Lee got twins?
    No, she ain’t got no twins. She ain’t big enough for twins.
    She ain’t big enough for you.
    I’ll tell you what neither one you or Virgil knows if you shut your highliner mouth for a breath.
    What’s that?
    The Downcoast Highliner is going into the lobster pound business with his big brother is what.
    Like hell.
    Like hell is right Mister Man. I know we figured I’d take his share in the pound and you’d get the camp, but I’m thinking on you and me going in half partners and we sell the
Jennifer
and you take the
Cinderella
once we get her back. Now don’t you go getting ornery. You need a bigger boat.
    I ain’t getting ornery, Bill. And I don’t need a bigger boat. And I ain’t gardening lobsters in that mud hole and counting numbers in books and I especially ain’t going in with Osmond fucking Randolph.
    You always was good with books, Jonah. You’re the Downcoast Highliner by Jesus. You can do any old thing. That pound is worth more’n twice what the camp is worth and so if we go partners with you taking a share of the pound, them numbers can work out. The price ain’t shit but all we got to do is feed and hold some lobsters over the winter and by March the price’ll be up.
    That don’t account for Osmond.
    The hell with Osmond. We’ll buy him out down the road.
    The hell so. You got yourself a infant coming. You fixing on marrying her or ain’t you?
    Bill leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. He held his coffee in both hands. I don’t know, he said. I just ain’t sure what to do.
    Jonah set one hand on the warm kettle. He wasn’t used to seeing his brother confused. He said, That girl’ll be the ruin of you.
    That what Virgil said?
    That’s what I said.
    Well she ain’t like that.
    The hell she ain’t. Get rid of her.
    Rid of her? You want me to run her offshore with a cinderblock?
    Christ, Bill, you know what I’m saying. If you love her, good. Congratulations. If not, end it before you got ten kids, a pile of food stamps, and more cousins than you can count.
    Bill stood up. You want in the pound or not? It’s family, Jonah. Always been. We got sixty thousand pounds of lobster in there right now and next summer I’m rebuilding the dam and causeway and dragging that rotten mud out of her and everything. It’s called fine tuning, Jonah. She’ll hold upward of eighty thousand pounds next year.
    It ain’t my deal, Bill, and you owe the bank for them sixty thousand pounds.
    Bill put his coffee down and stood straight and put his hands in his pockets. The pound’s good protection, Jonah. It’s security. The price’ll change by late winter.
    You’ll be changing diapers is what’ll change. Christ no I don’t want in just like you don’t want in with Erma Lee Carver or Osmond Randolph.
    She ain’t what you think. And I can handle Osmond.
    I don’t give a shit, Captain.
    Bill stepped into his rubber boots and opened the door. A gust of wind filled the room and he pulled the door closed without leaving. I know it, Jonah. I know it.
    Bill met Jonah’s gaze and the two stood like that for a moment and within that moment Jonah wondered how his brother would survive without their father.
    Bill continued, But I can’t keep away from her is the thing. I think it’s them pheromones you spoke of. She’s got a full trawl of them.
    I imagine that’s so.
    Bill shuffled his feet in the doorway. And besides, you ever seen a woman shaves down